CUCC Weekly eNews

You are invited to the first (of 3) shows on Saturday March 17, 10am-12pm. This series aims to present voices and perspectives of fellow UCC’ers who have visited Nicaragua.  This is an educational and social event to prepare ourselves and the youth for our Mission Trip in August. Greetings from Nicaragua! Event 1: Lena Gallitano traveled to Nicaragua in 2011 for a 17 day bird watching and natural history ecotourism adventure.  The trip featured research and conservation efforts with Audubon NC and other partners in Nicaragua.  Accommodations at ecolodges on several award-winning shade-coffee plantations gave support to the sustainable tourism industry in Nicaragua.  From the Matagalpa highlands to the Caribbean lowlands, Lena will share a slideshow of the birds of Nicaragua as well as glimpses of local life and the natural beauty of Nicaragua.  A discussion will follow the slide presentation. Nicaraguan Coffee will be served and baked treats will be for sale. Ab...

Missed out on one of Pastor Jenny's wonderfully affirming and inspiring sermons during this season of Lent? Perhaps you'd like to revisit one that really spoke to you. Check out the links below to read or reread what we've been hearing at Community UCC! February 18th “Do not be too moral. You may chew yourself out of too much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something." February 25th "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

To allow for installation of the traffic lights at the new roundabouts on Hillsborough Street, sections of Hillsborough will be closed this weekend (7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23 to 6 a.m. Monday, Feb. 26). Four traffic signals along Hillsborough Street from Brooks Avenue to Shepherd Street will be removed in order for three new roundabout traffic patterns to be put in place: at Shepherd/Rosemary Streets, at Dixie Trail/Friendly Drive, and at Brooks Avenue. Read more here

Dear CUCC, On Tuesday February 20, teenagers and adults from around the Triangle will gather at Pullen Memorial Baptist at 5pm for a time of remembrance and action. 1801 Hillsborough Street  map We will light candles for each life lost in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Ash Wednesday. After a time of remembrance, we will march with those candles down Hillsborough Street to the Capitol building demanding safer schools through gun safety legislation. I will meet our folks outside the double doors accessed from the Pullen Church parking lot, just off Cox Ave. Call, text or mail me with any questions you might have. Śānti Matthews, Youth and Adult Education Coordinator, CUCC education.cucc@gmail.com

On Being's host Krista Tippett interviews Brene Brown about her latest book, Braving the Wildnerness: The Quest for True Belonging.    Bren é Brown says that our belonging to each other can’t be lost, but it can be forgotten. Of belonging: Brown says, "Yeah, we’re desperate for it. I think if you look at — if you look from the lens of neuro-biology or even evolutionary biology: as a social species, to not be wanted and to not belong to the tribe or the clan or the group meant death. We are wired for this. It is — John Cacioppo of the University of Chicago, who does this incredible work on loneliness, says that the only real biological advantage we have over most other species is our connection, our belonging; our ability to collaborate, plan, be in relationship with in special ways. And so that desperate need to belong is not a neurosis; or it’s not an ego-driven thing. That need to belong and be a part of something greater than us is who we are in our DNA............. Yet wha...

Lectionary for the Week of February 25, 2018 - Second Sunday in Lent Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:23-31; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38 or Mark 9:2-9

Sunday 02/25              9:00am Nursery provided                                                     9:00am  Taizé Worship – Sanctuary                                                      9:15am Lenten Book Study - Vaughan Fellowship Hall   9:15am Animate Spiritual Practices” - Hoffmann Room   9:30am Choir Practice - Sanctuary 1 0:30am Worship Service  - Sanctuary  - Children Singing 10:45am Children’s Sunday School - Sunday School Rooms 10:45am Youth Sun...

Adrienne Little represents our Social Justice ministry in the community collaboration, Congregations for Social Justice.  She invites us to attend the  Habitat affordable housing forum  described below, enjoy pictures from the  CSJ Annual Dinner , and to stop by  JustBeer .  For information about Congregations for Social Justice, call Adrienne at (919) 781-0829.           A Matter of Faith: Habitat affordable housing forum Join us for A Matter of Faith: Habitat Wake’s affordable housing forum Sunday, March 4 at 3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.   St. Paul’s Christian Church 3331 Blue Ridge Rd,  Raleigh, NC 27612  Put your faith into action! Join Habitat Wake, Samuel Gunter of NC Housing Coalition, and leaders of the Interfaith Build for a discussion on the growing need for affordable housing in Wake County and throughout North Carolina, and how becoming an affordable housing advocate is a matter of faith.  Highlights:...

Green oval: Where to find who is serving where and our new constitution and bylaws You can find the new version of our constitution and bylaws, and the list of people on our ministries and committees (see green oval on the photo ) on the "Important church documents" page of our website . Where is the "Important church documents" page?  Look in the right side bar (see orange oval on the photo ). - a fun fact from your historian, Jane Smith

Dear Friends, As we enter this season of Lent, a time of deep reflection, of letting go of all that hinders us from wholeness, and of embracing ourselves for all that we are: skin & bone, and ash upon ash, we are yet again halted by hatred and frozen with fear. Violence is not the opposite of love, it is her archenemy.  We cannot afford to give-in to the dominant narrative of our time which yields violence with the upper hand, but instead we must become its enemy. There is no time to consider what is at stake; we already know: remember that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. We are not our own, however, the dust from which we have come was breathed in the secret place, by the God of Love. The God who has no enemies; the God who alone can bring the same bodies who perpetuate violence among us to their knees. Now is the time to act. As enemies of violence, “[Let us] put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes,   you may be able to stand y...

Lectionary for the Week of February 18, 2018 - First Sunday in Lent Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15